1. Field of the Invention
This invention pertains in general to a user interface for a computerized information system. In particular, this invention pertains to a user interface that is highly-customizable.
2. Description of the Related Art
An information system (IS) is used by an enterprise to process and share data. For example, a hospital or other health care organization uses a hospital information system (HIS) to manage data utilized in the day-to-day operation of the hospital. The data can relate to clinical events, patients, orders, scheduling, billing, insurance, etc. The HIS is utilized by various people, including clinicians, such as doctors and nurses, and administrators, such as billing specialists, to perform their respective roles at the hospital.
Different enterprises often prefer to utilize different workflows with respect to the IS. For example, a first hospital might require a patient to provide next-of-kin information upon admission, while a second hospital might not collect kin information at that time. The enterprises would like the user interfaces presented by the IS to track the enterprises' workflows. Thus, the enterprise that collects kin information during admission would prefer that the admissions user interface have a field for entering next-of-kin information, or at least link to another user interface where the information can be provided.
Similarly, end-users in different roles often prefer different process flows and associated user interfaces. For example, a doctor treating a patient in an emergency room might need to see different information than a doctor treating a patient in an outpatient setting. Likewise, a nurse administering medicine might need to see different patient information than a doctor who is ordering a prescription. In another example, a given user might prefer that a user interface is in a particular language.
However, the information systems do not provide this degree of flexibility with respect to workflows or interfaces. The information systems often have a hardcoded workflow, where every interaction with the system traverses through a fixed set of user interfaces, and every user interface collects a fixed set of information. Therefore, significant engineering effort is required to customize the system for different enterprises and/or end-users. This problem is especially acute for vendors of information systems that may need or want to customize the system for many different enterprises and users.
Thus, there is a need in the art for a way to easily customize workflows and user-interfaces for information systems.